OMG, EGGS! 1st time! Soooo excited

[hd_darcy]

Wow! So interesting about the eggs.... So when the 'girls' are free-ranged, they could lay the eggs anywhere? Or would they miraculously return to the coop in a nest box for that????

Thanks in advance!

 

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Now that, is awesome info!

Does it effect their laying if I pick them up everyday, should I leave a fake egg, golfball, something, somewhere so she'll lay there? The first 3 I found were in the same place (where they sleep), but I picked those up and the next day I found one under a trailer where they hang out sometimes. So I put a golfball in a milk crate with hay in it to make like a nest. Does this matter? Thank you for great info, bring it on! jenn

 

[lauralou]

gryeyes is exactly right about the egglaying schedule.

I use golf balls in all of my nestboxes. I think it helps to give them the idea that they should lay eggs there. They also seem to like it if the nest box is in a private, dimly lit area.

That top red thingy is the comb. I have a Blue Andalusian hen, sort of like a Leghorn. Her comb didn't get big enough to fall over until she had been laying for a while. It probably works the same way with Leghorns, so I'm not sure that you'll see that just yet. I could be wrong.

Edited to add: You should definitely collect the eggs every day. You don't want them to get broken. You certainly don't want the hens to learn to break and eat them.

 

[lauralou]

Quote:
My hens have always returned to the coops and laid in the nestboxes when free ranged. My very first hens had already learned to use the nestboxes before I ever let them out to free range. Then later hens just learned to do it from the older hens. I have read that some people have problems with free ranging hens laying eggs out on "the range". So it's probably just a learned thing. Every hen has her own favorite spot where she lays her eggs. If that spot is in the coop to begin with, it shouldn't ever be a problem.

If it does become a problem, the obvious solution is to keep them penned in or around the coop for a week or so, until they learn to use the nestboxes.